Sam Brownback(Catholic PRWire) Religious Symbol Abuse: The nation’s largest veterans organization today called on the U.S. Senate to pass the “Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act of 2006.” … The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), would amend all federal laws with fee-shifting provisions, including the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Act, 42 U.S. Code 1988 and the Equal Access to Justice Act. It would eliminate the authority of judges to award taxpayer-paid attorney fees to the ACLU, or other organizations, in lawsuits brought under the Establishment Clause of the Constitution against veterans memorials, the Boy Scouts, or the public display of the Ten Commandments or other symbols of American history and religious heritage. Brownback’s press release on the issue(New England Journal of Medicine) Access before Approval – A Right to Take Experimental Drugs? A surprising court decision this past May has advanced an effort to allow terminally ill people to purchase experimental drugs after initial safety testing but before they have been shown to work. … The Abigail Alliance’s lawsuit is one component of its campaign to radically change this system. The organization’s legislative proposal can be found in the ACCESS Act, a bill introduced this past November by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kans.). Under the proposal, a drug could obtain tier 1 approval on the basis of phase 1 testing and preclinical evidence – from testing in animals, case histories, pharmacologic studies, or computer modeling – that it “may be effective against a life-threatening condition.” A drug with tier 1 approval could be marketed for seriously ill patients who had exhausted other treatment options, if they waived the right to sue the manufacturer and permitted collection of their clinical data. … The bill has alarmed the clinical research community and large health-advocacy groups. Only 11 percent of drugs – and only 6 percent of cancer drugs – that enter clinical testing are ultimately approved; the rest either prove to be too toxic or do not work.Pat Roberts(KC Star) Legislation is aimed at workers who leak to press: Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri introduced legislation Wednesday that would make it easier to prosecute government workers who make unauthorized leaks to the press. The bill would eliminate the need for prosecutors to show that a leak damaged national security. Instead, they would have to show only that a government employee or contractor with access to classified information “knowingly and willfully” leaked it to those not authorized to receive it. … Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican and chairman of the intelligence committee, supports the legislation, a spokeswoman said.How to contact As always, you can find information to contact members of the Kansas congressional delegation here.